Time for the Payoff

Okay, you've done a lot of work on market niches--some four hours and twety minutes worth, more or less.

If you've completed the thirteen previous 20 minute tasks in the "Find Your Market Niche" module, then you've written several pages of information and collected it in a folder. You've thought about:

• Problems that you and others have
• Obvious and not-so-obvious things about yourself and the niches you belong to
• Hot things happening on the Internet right now
• Your passions and skills
• Combining niches to create market segments you could really love

Don't worry. If you make the wrong choice at this early stage, you're not taking a huge risk. In the next module, you'll run some tests to check your choice. If necessary you can come back and select a different niche. But it's likely that you'll pick an excellent one this time.

Choosing one niche now doesn't mean you're abandoning all the others, either. Later on, after you've worked on the niche you choose now and have gotten something worthwhile out of it, you can come back and select another niche if you desire.

For now, however, you want just ONE NICHE, the one your heart tells you is right.

Your 20 Minute Task

For this 20 minute task, make sure you're in a quiet place where you won't be interrupted. Have your "Market Niche" folder and a pen or pencil with you. For the 20 minutes, quickly review all the material in your folder. Then close your eyes. Say a little prayer if you'd like. Listen to your heart.

Which market niche does your heart say you should choose? Write it down on the outside of the folder.

If you can't decide, jot down a list of the top contenders. Do it quickly. Remember, you only have 20 minutes and there's a reason for that. You need to trust your heart (or the right side of your brain or your intuition or your gut or whatever you want to call it). Let the part of you that synthesizes decisions out of lots of information win out over the part that analyzes everything.

If you don't see a problem you'd like to tackle but you see a group of people that shares specific characteristics, you can go with that and work on what problems it has later on.

Close your eyes and listen again. What's the niche?

If you haven't done so already, write it down on the outside of the folder. Put a circle around it.

When you're finished, congratulate yourself because you've made an important business decision. Now you can move forward to test the niche and to find ways to serve its members in order to create a strong web business.